The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) barred using human fetal tissue derived from elective abortions from being utilized in taxpayer-funded analysis.
“HHS is ending using human fetal tissue from elective abortions in agency-funded analysis and changing it with gold-standard science,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned in an announcement. “The science helps this shift, the ethics demand it, and we are going to apply this commonplace persistently throughout the Division.”
HHS mentioned in its announcement, which was launched the identical day because the 53rd annual March for Life, that its new coverage aligns with the Trump administration’s priorities to “uphold the sanctity of human life and modernize biomedical science.” The transfer applies persistently to grants, contracts, and packages administered throughout the division.
In line with HHS, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), which distributes most HHS medical analysis funding, is making use of the coverage to its Intramural Analysis Program and all NIH-supported extramural analysis, together with grants, cooperative agreements, different transaction awards, and analysis and growth contracts. The motion takes precedent over earlier NIH steerage and “displays a shift towards validated analysis fashions higher suited to as we speak’s quickly evolving scientific panorama, which incorporates advances in organoids, tissue chips, computational biology, and different cutting-edge platforms,” the company mentioned.
READ MORE — Unique: Investigation Reveals NIH Funds 17 Grants Involving Fetal Tissue Analysis
“NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the twenty first century,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya mentioned in an announcement. “This resolution is about advancing science by investing in breakthrough applied sciences extra able to modeling human well being and illness. Underneath President Trump’s management, taxpayer-funded analysis should replicate the perfect science of as we speak and the values of the American folks.”
HHS had 77 initiatives utilizing human fetal tissue that have been funded by NIH throughout the fiscal yr of 2024, the Every day Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan first reported. NIH instructed the outlet that the quantity represents a gentle decline since 2019.
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